Sisters Ruth and Mary Chance cut the first sods to mark the start of a £1.18million restoration of the historic local park. Their father, a former Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria, Robert Chance, gifted the Manor & gardens to the city in 1944, but the landscaped gardens and parkland around the Manor date back to the early 1800s. The parkland forms the grounds to the Grade II listed Manor House and a number of features from the original layout remain including the ha-ha and many veteran trees.